Would attitude have made a difference?

Despite my fathers’ explicit dislike towards auto drivers, I depend on them quite a lot.  I have always had interesting rendezvous with auto drivers.  It must have been 7 PM local time (For those who doesn't know, I am in India now). I got into an auto to go home. There was heavy traffic, as always. The ride was normal with the expected bumps and hurdles. I was almost three minutes away from home; the auto got hit by another vehicle from behind. The auto driver stopped the auto and went to check what had happened. He came back and updated me that a newly registered car which doesn't even have number plate had hit the auto and the auto got some scratch. He went back and demanded money to repair the damage. As the auto driver had stopped his vehicle abruptly in the middle of the road it is needless to say that he was blocking the traffic. People in the vehicles behind were getting restless and irritated resulting in sound pollution through the noisy horns.  Meanwhile I was in ‘should I get down or not‘dilemma. The auto driver was forced to move his vehicle from the middle of the road to the side. so I asked him to stop the vehicle so that I can get down from it. The new car driver/owner might have thought that he got a chance to get away without dealing with the crap and drove away.  This action pricked the auto driver more. He didn't stop the auto but started chasing the car. Thanks to the traffic he didn't have to chase the car for long time. He went again and demanded money for repair. The car driver/owner was not ready to pay him. The auto driver said,”In that case let us call the police”. I don’t know whether it was that dialogue or lack of time to deal with the issue, the car driver/owner gave some money to the auto driver and left. I really wanted to know how much money the auto driver got. So I told the auto driver to drop me near my home. I started the conversation about how much damage the auto received and how much will it cost him to do the repair etc. He told me it will cost some money every time they take it to the workshop. But usually he doesn't demand money for these small things. He said, “It was the attitude of the person that pricked me.  If he had said a sorry I would have left it there. This happens regularly but people apologize and move on. This person was so stubborn, didn't apologize and he was giving silly excuses. That’s why I took the money”. I suggested him to let go of the issue and not to lose his temper over the matter. I also paid him a little bit extra than usual.  

I really wonder whether he would have gone without making it a big deal if the car owner/driver had just apologized.